Utilizing
March and Simon’s (1958) targets for identification
(organization-level, task-group level and sub-group level),
the present study explores how organization’s can structure
organizational life to influence commitment and behavior.
Through the manipulation of the salience and perceived distinctiveness
of the organization and its groups, firms can alter the level
of identification employees have with any one group. The
task-group which is the intermediate-level group will serve
as the focal group for this study which explores the question:
how is task-group identity is affected by looking “up” to
organizational identity and “down” to sub-group
identity? In this study, organizational and task-group identities
are made salient in one condition and task-group and sub-group
identity are made salient in the simultaneous condition.
Inclusiveness of the larger of the two groups is manipulated
in each pairing so it is possible to: 1) compare organizational
and task-group identity under the conditions of a highly
inclusive organization and a low inclusive organization;
2) compare task-group and sub-group identity under the conditions
of a highly inclusive task-group and a low inclusive task-group
and 3) compare the level and direction of task-group identity
in the two conditions. It is anticipated that results will
show that it is possible to reverse the task-group identity
of the subjects and that identification with the task-group
will increase with the organizational level of inclusiveness
and decrease when the task-group becomes too inclusive and
a sub-group is made salient.

Attribution error occurs when an individual misperceives
causality in a situation. Often outcomes are erroneously
attributed to organizational or environmental causes (Ross,
1977). However, recently scholars have demonstrated that
attribution error is not universal. Indeed, Menon, Morris,
Chiu and Hong (1999) have demonstrated that people living
under the rubric of more communal eastern cultures are more
likely to attribute outcomes not to individuals but to organizations.
Similarly, I hypothesize that attribution error is not universal
but is affected by interpersonal trust. I explicate the affects
of this reversal in the context of inter-organizational alliances
wherein attribution errors can result in the premature deterioration
or detrimental continuation of inter-organizational trust.
This theory is tested with a lab experiment.

Management
consulting has recently undergone several changes and shocks
that
might lead the public to distrust it as an
institution. The present study experimentally examines the
effect of such distrust on the process of choosing a management
consulting firm. Based on organizational behavior literature,
when decision-makers are distrustful of the institution,
they are expected to make hiring decisions based on cost
rather than reputation. To test this hypothesis, MBA students
read texts that manipulated their trust in the consulting
industry and the perceived reputations of different consulting
firms. They were then asked to select the consulting firm
they would hire. The specific dependent measures were the
determinants of choice – cost or reputation – that
were involved in the decision-making process.

The proclivity to stereotype individuals arises when there
is a perception that social roles do not align with gender
roles (Eagly, 2002). This experiment illustrates gender differences
in the way individuals who experience this role incongruence
will adjust their association with the two opposing roles.
Females implicitly associated themselves less with their
gender when thinking of themselves as leaders than when thinking
of themselves as homemakers. Females in the leadership condition
were also more likely to think of themselves as possessing
more masculine oriented traits and greater leadership aspirations.
Males did not show a change in association with their gender
in the leadership or the homemaker condition, and subsequently
did not show a difference in trait orientation and leadership
aspirations.

Service
Response Efforts: The Cost of Making Exceptions for CustomersKatie AwerkampNorthwestern University

Companies pour
great resources into satisfying consumers because their
economic success pivots on customer retention.
However, customer satisfaction often fails to equate with
customer loyalty. Although various factors can explain the
tenuous link between customer satisfaction and loyalty, I
offer one explanation in this paper by exploring a particular
organizational practice—making exceptions to a company’s
service policy—that can maximize customer satisfaction,
yet compromise perceptions of procedural justice and ultimately
discourage customer loyalty. In a two-by-two experimental
design of customer service encounters, I manipulate outcome
favorability and procedural justice (policy consistency)
to test my argument that outcomes and perceptions of procedural
justice differentially influence satisfaction and consumer
loyalty.

Two-party negotiations in organizations are often carried
out by teams. However, the influence of team composition
on negotiation outcomes remains inadequately studied. Drawing
from both the literature of team diversity and that of team
negotiation, this study proposed that the presence of at
least one heterogeneous group in the two-party team negotiation
would help enhance the joint outcome. Both increased information
exchange and enhanced creativity were hypothesized as underlying
processes contributing to this heterogeneous group advantage.
The advantage of the heterogeneous group in team negotiation
was also thought to depend on process accountability. The
difference in joint outcomes between negotiations with at
least one heterogeneous group and those with only homogeneous
groups was greater when negotiators were held accountable
for their judgments and decisions made during the negotiation
than when they were not held accountable.

Combining research in leadership, gender roles, stereotyping
and politeness, this study looks at expectations of how women
in leadership positions utilize polite speech within the
business world and how those expectations change when the
job is no longer male oriented. We found women, in typically
female jobs, are not held to the communal stereotype that
would expect them to use democratic leadership style, indirect
requests, and low status-modifiers, when speaking with subordinates.
Women in typically female jobs are much more accepted when
leading in an autocratic style than women in typically male
jobs as found in Experiment 1. We also found that subordinate
gender did effect perception of a female leader, even in
typically female jobs. Male subordinates found women to be
less polite than female subordinates in typically female
settings as found in Experiment 2.

The
present study extends the work of Malhotra and Murnighan
(2000) by experimentally
examining competitive arousal and
framing as explanations of auction fever. Auction fever is
viewed as bidding over one’s pre-selected limit and
is often accompanied by increased arousal. In addition to
examining auction fever, this study tested the economic prediction
of revenue equivalence in English and Dutch auctions. In
Experiment 1, the components of competitive arousal (competition
and time pressure) are studied in English and Dutch auctions.
Experiment 2 tests competitive arousal and positive and negative
frames as competing explanations of auction fever.

Power Inside-Out: The Corresponding Increase in Private Self-Awareness and Decrease in Public Self-Awareness Joe C. Magee

Structural
and interpersonal effects of power are better understood than
intrapersonal effects of power on power-holders.
The psychological effects of power for power-holders’ attention
and behavior will be investigated. Drawing on a recent theoretical
model of power (Keltner, Gruenfeld, & Anderson, 2000)
, I propose that power-holders are more focused on psychological
states, more likely to notice those states, and more likely
and quicker to act with disregard for others in their attempts
to satisfy desires. The proposed experiment will examine
attention and behavior of two types. First, I will measure
attention to the internal state of hunger and eating behavior
to satisfy the appetite in people with relative high- and
low-power. Second, I will measure discomfort with an excessively
strong fan and behavior to reduce the discomforting effects
of this environmental stimulus.

This
research aims to highlight a component of the decision-making
process
that individuals face regularly: the anticipation
of regret. Set in the context of dual-career families and
their decisions regarding flexible work arrangements, the
goal of this study is to investigate the impact of anticipation
of regret on one’s ultimate decision to take advantage
of a flexible work arrangement. Specifically, this paper
examines how situational factors, such as the amount of feedback
expected, in both the work and personal environments affect
a person’s decision to take advantage of a FWA.

In this
study, I attempt to explain why people involved in meaningful
tasks will often bet that they will fail, even
when success is more likely. I present four theoretical frameworks
that may explain this behavior, and then contrast the specific
predictions provided by each. The Estimation Bias model argues
that people simply miscalculate the probability of success.
The Social Impression Management model states that people
bet they will fail because they are trying to promote a positive
(humble) social image. The Risk-Diversification model states
that people are risk-averse and "hedge" their bets – by
betting they will fail, they make sure that potential failure
is offset by winnings from the gamble. The Defensive Pessimism
model suggests outcome satisfaction is higher when expectations
are low, and people bet that they will fail to lower outcome
expectation. In two experiments, I test the predictions of
each model.

Organizational
stories have been found to increase commitment to organizations.
However, what kind of stories achieve this
effect remains unclear. This research links the increased-commitment-effect
to two themes of "creation" and "overcoming
a challenge." These themes are functionally similar
to mythical themes found in anthropological research. I argue
that organizational stories based on these themes are more
effective in generating commitment than other stories. To
test this prediction, groups of subjects participate in a
bogus computer-based allocation game. After establishing
a baseline level of group commitment, subjects are led to
believe that they will represent a certain larger team for
the remainder of the game. Information on this larger team
is given in the form of four different organizational stories,
three of which are based on the theme of creation, challenge,
or both. The fourth story contains no mythical elements and
is based on a different theme commonly found in organizations.
After administering the four stories, commitment levels are
measured. Groups then receive negative feedback on their
performance and subjects are offered to leave the group in
favor of an apparently more successful group. Responses to
this offer are measured.

Managers
can become disappointed, angry, and irritated when employees
do not
complete tasks appropriately. Poor performance
is often mistakenly attributed to low effort and motivation
on the part of the employee. I would argue that inappropriate
task completion might stem from unclear communication of
task expectations. Unfortunately, due to an illusion of transparency
in transmittal, managers often think that they have made
their expectations well known when they have not. Participants
will be assigned the role of manager or employee in a performance
appraisal scenario, and will participate in a performance
appraisal meeting. After the meeting both managers and employees
will complete questionnaires that include items about the
general expectations as well as the task expectations that
the manager has for the employee’s performance. The
presence of the illusion of transparency is indicated if
managers overestimate how clearly employees judge the interaction.
In addition, observers will view videotapes of the meetings
to examine whether part of the illusion of transparency phenomenon
can be attributed to the curse of knowledge.

This
paper focuses on boards of directors and how directors’ preparations
for board meetings are influenced by the expectation that
they are to interact with the CEO. The board is analyzed
as a triadic decision situation in which shareholders, directors,
and CEOs come together for decision-making purposes. It is
argued here, that the level of cognitive complexity shown
by directors in preparation for meetings depends on three
things. (1) their accountability for participation in the
meetings, (2) what form of accountability they face (split
or non-split), and (3) who they expect to meet with (shareholders
or CEOs). It is also argued, that directors preparing meeting
using lower levels of cognitive complexity are more likely
to vote with CEOs and are more likely to converge in their
strategy recommendations with CEOs. These arguments are tested
in a between-subjects 2x2x3 factorial experiment using MBA
students as participants.

Attempts to enhance creative performance can backfire.
This paper presents the results of an administrative
experiment involving teams working on a complex task. The
task, part of an exercise called technology roadmapping,
is increasingly being used by large industrial firms as a
technology planning and integration process. Two treatments
are hypothesized to diminish the creative output of roadmapping
teams: instruction in particular forecasting techniques and
external evaluation of creativity. Existing theories of creativity
and extrinsic motivation are extended and a new mechanism
explaining creative influence is presented.

This
paper begins by observing conflicts in influential decision
making theories
that seem almost symmetrical and
systematic. After first reviewing key decision theory to
identify and elaborate their conflicts, I propose an account
for risky decisions in which an interaction between the anticipated
impact on the decision maker's identity and the decision
maker's familiarity with the domain are key determinants
of risk behavior. Finally, the design for an experiment to
test this identity-familiarity hypothesis is described.

Prior research
has demonstrated that there are individual differences
in social value orientation, which dictate differential
preferences for particular distributions of outcomes in situations
of social interdependence. Prosocials (those motivated to
maximize joint gains) exhibit more cooperation than individualists
(who are motivated to maximize own gain, regardless of other)
and competitors (motivated to maximize relative gain in relation
to other). The assumption of this article is that these are
not necessarily stable and fixed personality traits, but
may be influenced by situational factors. We examine whether
emotional states have differential effects on social value
orientation. In this study we focus on the contrast between
happy and sad moods compared to a control group, as a representation
of a positive versus negative emotional state. Following
a mood manipulation a measure of participants’ social
value orientation will be assessed. We hypothesize that in
the case of a negative mood a person will be more likely
to exhibit individualistic and competitive preferences for
distributions of outcomes in situations of social interdependence.
On the other hand, in a positive mood, a person will be more
likely to exhibit prosocial orientations.